RELIGION.

RELIGION is the great cement of civil society the foundation whereon it is builtthe bond which keeps mankind united. Without it, there can be neither harmony, order, nor security among men nor can we ever expect the divine protection and blessing, without which no human society or kingdom can stand. "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." A commonwealth of atheists is, in the nature of things, impossible; and the nearer men approach to atheism, infidelity, impiety, or contempt of religion in their opinion or practices, by so much is the ruin and destruction of that nation nearer and nearer. The first object, then, that should engage the attention of

those who love their country, is to encourage and promote, both by their example and influence, the belief and practice of true religion, and to discourage all profaneness and impiety. It would very greatly adorn the character of a true patriot to be zealous for God and his country against that corruption of manners which too much abounds against the but too prevalent contempt of God's holy day.

As even the outward observances of religion (much less its true spirit) cannot be maintained unless there be a competent number of places of worship, true patriotism will manifest itself in liberally contributing to the erection of churches in those localities where they are wanting, and to the repairing of those tabernacles of God which are fallen into decay. If these things be duly attended to, the Protestant religion-the practical observance of whose pure doctrines is the best, nay, the only security for the divine protection-will soon wear a pleasing aspect through all parts of this country.

England has been for centuries the light

of nations, sending to them the pure doctrines of Christianity. The Church of England furnishes her converts with the records of truth, dispensing even to the utmost limits of the earth the unadulterated word of the living God in the vernaclar language of all people. The two sacraments afford the means of sanctification: the creeds serve as a compendious rule of faith: the decalogue as a code of morality. All that is requisite for the faith and practice of a Christian being comprised in the above, to communicate such transcendant blessings to a nation is to open to it the sources of life and happiness.

In accordance with the spirit and precepts of the Gospel, the British nation, knowing that the poor have a peculiar claim on them, endeavour faithfully and zealously to meet that claim. They have the Gospel preached to them, and every facility is afforded them to bring up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. There is also no bodily malady, no mental suffering, no afflictive dispensation of Providence to which human nature is

heir, from its first entrance on this scene of probation to its final rest in the grave, that is not relieved here with a prodigality seldom witnessed elsewhere.

As I do not purpose enumerating all the Christian and truly benevolent institutions of London, I need only say that every want, every misfortune, is certain of meeting with corresponding assistance, either from some humane individual, or from some of the numerous charitable associations; and the traveller who contemplates the unwearied exertions of so many individuals, united for such noble purposes, is forced to acknowledge that in no country has charity assumed so many forms, or tried so many arts, in order to discover and assuage the complicated and multifarious varieties of human misery. The associations alluded to are principally composed of the middle class. As in other countries, so in England, this class possesses the largest share of virtue and compassion: yet characters, the most exalted by rank, talent, and fortune, enrol their names among them, and frequently distinguish themselves by

their zeal and activity in the cause of benevolence and religion. But, as no earthly good is exempt from alloy, for perfection belongs to God alone, so there exist in England three classes of religionists which merit reprehension-first, those who expect too much from their fellow-Christians; so that if, unfortunately, this last commit a fault, he is lost for ever in their estimation. For this reason, it very often occurs that a man who would easily have returned into the path of virtue, had he been admonished with Christian charity in secret, seeing himself rendered a sport and byword to all, plunges deeper and deeper into vice, and is lost for ever to God and to society. A second class of religious professors, whom I would censure, are those who, before affording aid to the necessitous, subject them to an interminable and painfully humiliating interrogatory from which a gentleman naturally shrinks, preferring rather to suffer, whilst the impostor always submits to it; because, having divested himself of all self-respect, his feelings can no longer be wounded by the contempt of